tions of theft for which the punishment of death is usually awarded in this country, as it includes them all:-That it is one continued system of daily and hourly robbery, wresting from the miserable victim his natural liberty, his rights as a man, as a husband, as a father; his rights as a British subject by the constitution of his country, or as an innocent foreigner by the Law of Nations: That the crime is nothing less than that of robbing a human being of all his mental and moral energies, of keeping his mind in darkness lest he should become acquainted with his rights, and of reducing him for all civil purposes to the condition of a murdered man: That the West-Indian Negro, though born to all the privileges of a British subject, is allowed no inheritance but slavery; that if he attempts to assert his just claims, he is consigned to the gallows or the stake as a traitor, on the principle by which pirates put to death those who do not quietly submit to their injustice; and thus natural death is added to civil death, and judicial murder to robbery in its most complicated form, to robbery momentarily repeated through a life of terror, of Scourgings, and of mental and bodily degradation. The petitioners beg leave to observe that these are no fancied horrors, but positive and admitted facts, and that they are here speaking of the sufferings of innocent aliens, whose privileges are consecrated by that Law of Nations which England has shed her bravest blood to maintain, and of British subjects born in the King's allegiance, whose rights have the same foundation and are as inalienable as those of every Member of the House-That the petitioners, regarding the slavery of their fellowsubjects in the West Indies as an outrage upon all justice, and sensible of the duty of putting an end. with as little delay as possible, to a system which is pregnant with such complicated evils, confide in the wisdom of the House for the adop tion of such measures as may be necessary for the speedy attainment of that desirable object; but at the same time they beg leave respectfully to submit, that there is one measure which, while it is unquestionably safe, would also prove a most efficacious corrective of many of the immediate evils of Colonial Slavery, and might be carried into effect without loss of time: the petitioners allude to the abrogation of the bounties and protecting duties on sugar:-That these bounties and protecting duties prevent sugar, now become one of the necessaries of life, from being imported from various parts of the world, at a price so much below the sugar from the West Indies, as to make a difference to the British public of one penny per pound, or about one million and a half sterling on the aggregate annual consumption of the people of Great Britain and Ireland: That these protecting duties have now been in force twelve years, many of them years of great distress to the agriculturists and manufacturers of this country, during which the West-Indian sugar-farmers have received eighteen millions sterling for their sugars, over and above the price at which sugars might have been purchased in the markets of England if the West-Indian planter had not been protected from the effects of fair competition :-That it is from the forced and unremitted cultivation of sugar in the comparatively inferior and exhausted soils of the British West-Indian Islands, excited by the hope of high profits, that the sufferings of the Negroes chiefly arise, and that upon the shewing of the planters themselves, this forced cultivation is solely kept up by the artificial stimulus of bounties and protecting duties, which impede the commerce of Great Britain, and operate as an oppressive tax on the public:-That when the exhaustion of the soils, and the ruinous and expensive system of slave cultivation and non-residence, prevent the importation of sugars from the West-Indian Islands at the price for which they could be obtained from various parts of the world, the petitioners humbly conceive that the West-Indian planters have no just claim to bounties and protecting duties to enable them to continue an improvident speculation: That the petitioners humbly submit, that the bounties and protecting duties on sugar, for the benefit of a comparatively few individuals, who hold their fellow-subjects in slavery, ought not, in justice to the agricultural and manufacturing interests of this country, to be continued:That, next to British farming produce, sugar is the chief article of domestic consumption, and ranks among the necessaries of life:That the effect of abrogating the bounties and protecting duties on sugar would be, to transfer the cultivation of that article to the East Indies, and other places where it can be produced by the free labour of native farmers, and at little expense: -That this transfer would tend to increase the growth of the proper food of the Negro-British subject in the West Indies, diminish his fatigues, his privations, and his sufferings; and, by rapidly increasing the Black population, would so reduce the price of slaves, and facilitate manumissions, that the slave system would gradually become extinct, without violence or commotion:That the petitioners therefore, on behalf of the thousands of innocent foreigners, and of hundreds of thousands of their fellow-subjects, forcibly held in slavery; on behalf of the people of England, whose rights and liberties are invaded in the persons of innocent Englishmen, denied that justice which ought to be extended with rigid impartiality to the powerful and to the helpless, to the Black Colonist as to the White; on behalf of the King, nearly seven hundred thousand of whose natural-born subjects are wrested from the guardianship of his protecting hand, within his own dominions, by those who strip their sovereign of the attributes of his crown, and annihilate the civil existence of a portion of his people, equal in number to the population of a principality; on behalf of the consistency and the credit of the nation, whose cannon so recently swept the ramparts of Algiers, and dealt death to thousands on the African shore, that a barbarous people might be compelled to abstain in future from reducing into slaves, not the subjects of this country merely, but those of all other European powers, and to act on principles of which Britain is the public champion, and of which her West-Indian slave-owners are as publicly the unpunished and daily violators; on behalf of the suffering manufacturers of England, whose trade with nearly the whole of South America, with Mexico, with Hayti, with China, with New Holland, and, above all, with India and her one hundred millions of inhabitants, is checked and stunted in its growth, because protecting duties and bounties prevent those countries from sending to England their sugars in exchange for the products of British industry, and this in order that the slave cultivation of the West Indies may be exclusively encouraged; on behalf of every virtue, and of every interest that is dear to Englishmen, the petitioners implore the House to take into their earliest consideration the repeal or the protecting duties and bounties granted to the cultivators of sugar by slave labour,-that, whatever difficulties the slave question may present under other aspects, the people of England may at least be delivered from the bitter consciousness of maintaining by oppressive and unnecessary premiums, a system of iniquity, degrading to the national character; criminal beyond all other modes of robbery and violence; subversive of every legal and every constitutional principle, and equally at variance with the dictates of sound policy, humanity, and justice." AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY. THE board of managers of the American Colonization Society state, that, from the dispatches received from the colony at Liberia, bearing date 23d January 1826, it appeared that there was a degree of prosperity and security in that establishment which, with all their expectations, the friends of African colonization could scarcely have been led to hope. In all the internal concerns and foreign relations of the colony, there was every evidence of growing prosperity, strength, and security. The health of the colonists is as good as that of any community. Since June 1825, to the date of the dispatches, there have occurred five deaths; three adults and two children. After acclimation, the Coloured emigrants acquire a perfect vigour of constitution, accommodation to the African climate, and ability to support every hardship which ordinary life or contingencies may impose. The colonists are under the influence of a mild, but energetic, government-one which is a terror to evil-doers, and a protection to the good. As the settlement has increased in population, commerce, and wealth, the moral character has advanced; the intelligence and virtue of the people evincing their capacity for self-government. The arrangements now making for the settlement of families on farms, promise that agriculture will keep pace with commerce; and these two great sources of support and wealth are now in such happy operation at Monrovia, as to ensure the adequacy of the colony to its own maintenance, in its present condition. The trade in rice, coffee, camwood, and ivory, is already considerable; and is so regulated as to inspire the confidence of the natives in the liberal and fair dealings of the colonists. During the past year, two churches have been built. Five schools are in active operation, besides Sunday schools: the children, emigrant and native-the latter sixty in numberare well instructed. The adults are busily engaged in finishing and improving their dwellings and property. Mechanics receive two dollars per day; labourers from three quarters of a dollar to a dollar and a quarter, with constant employment. The whole prospect is animating to the residents, and imposing to the numerous foreigners who resort to Monrovia. A vessel of ten tons, called the St. Paul, admirably fitted for the coasting trade and for procuring supplies, has been built by one of the colonists, according to the plan and under the direction of the agent: several other boats belong to the establishment. Fort Stockton has been rebuilt, so as to be one of the most conspicuous objects on the Cape; and, with some other fortifications, renders the town perfectly secure against any foe. Two well-disciplined companies, one of infantry, the other of artillery, present an active force, ready for any service, at a moment's warning. The emigrants from Boston have been received as "brothers and sisters." To the American public, to the state and national legislatures, to the free People of Colour who may desire to emigrate, the board of managers declare, that a peaceful, healthful, prosperous community has been founded at Monrovia: and was, in January, the date of these advices, in most flourishing circumstances: and they therefore, with renewed confidence, declare their object worthy of the continued patronage of a generous Christian people, and of its wise and patriotic legislators. In consequence of a piratical act, committed on a British merchantvessel, in Liberia Bay, and within the Society's jurisdiction, by a Spanish slave-trader, it became necessary for the agent at Monrovia to interfere, and destroy three slave-factories within ten miles of the town. In doing this, 116 miserable victims were rescued from slavery; and are now comfortably clothed, fed, and in progress of education, at Monrovia. The circumstances have been minutely detailed to the Government; and the report to the Board assures them of the judicious, firm, and proper course of the agent. The neighbouring tribes have congratulated the colonists on their energetic measures; and, in the language of the agent, "between Cape Mount and Trade Town, comprehending a line of 140 miles, not a slaver now dares to attempt his guilty traffic." "A settlement," say the manag"thus formed on the African coast, on a most salubrious spot ers, with a fine fertile territory, enjoying the respect and confidence of the natives,with a government in systematic operation, with a military force competent to its perfect protection, witha commerce steadily improving, with Christian and civil institutions of the purest character, affixing the seal of performance to the promises, and of reality to the hopes, of the friends of colonization-speaks to the people of this enlightened country with an emphasis which, it is hoped, will not be lost on the patriot and statesman." More recent dispatches are equally favourable in their statements. 1 SOUTH-AFRICAN MISSIONS. We have frequently adverted to the benefits conferred on the natives of South Africa by the missionary institutions of the London Missionary Society. The following communication affords an additional illustration. "While travelling in company with the missionary, we walked, rather late in the evening, on a wild and sequestered spot, about thirty miles from Bethelsdorp, near the cottage of an old slave, who had, for some years, been a sincere convert to Christianity, and entrusted by his master with the entire charge of a farm. While seated by a fire under the shelter of a few bushes, with a fine starry sky over head, and every thing calm and peaceful around, the slave, with his family and a few Hottentots who resided at the place, came up and joined us, in the hope of hearing a word of exhortation, and joining with the missionary in prayer; which we found they were in the habit of doing, every evening, among themselves. Including the Hottentots of our own party, they formed all together a groupe of about a dozen persons, besides children. We entered into conversation with them by the help of the missionary; being gratified with the character and sentiments of a set of people whom accident had thrown in our way. "The wife of the old slave, a Caffre woman, informed us, that she had first been brought to the knowledge of religion by some of the Bethelsdorp Hottentots, who occasionally visited the place, by whom also she had been taught to read the Bible in Dutch; and that she had also since resided at intervals, for a few weeks at that station, for the benefit of instruction.— When she first heard something of religion, she thought it was all foolishness; but, seeing people pray and in tears, while they confessed themselves to be sinners, and asked pardon of God, she began to think herself no better than they, and was induced to seek for information on the subject. At length, finding that she also was a sinner, and being told by the Hottentots of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners, she felt compelled to pray for forgiveness, and for knowledge of God's word; and received, she said, such hope of God's mercy, as has never since left her. "We learned that this humble disciple of Christ, with the true spirit of the faith which she professed, had, for years, been in the daily practice of communicating her knowledge to those around her, and regularly instructing them, with her own children, in reading the Scriptures, as well as in the duties of private and family devotion. Her husband has been converted nearly in a similar manner. Hearing some Hottentot recruits, on their way from Bethelsdorp to join the Cape regiment, praying and confessing their sins, he asked his master what sort of people they were; his master, a man of no religion, told him that they were mad: but he soon began to reflect that he himself led the same kind of life as the others did, and that therefore he must be as guilty as they were; and, being driven to pray, at first as a matter of form, and from the shame of being left alone, while the others, according to their custom, went out, in the evening, each to a bush to perform his devotions, he came at last to do so, in real earnest; when he found he could utter nothing more than 'Lord, help me!' He had afterwards received occasional instruction at Bethelsdorp, and also profited by the conversation of his Christian friends; and, although for some time much persecuted by his master, he had long been entrusted with his confidence, and was now permitted to pursue his religion as he pleased. "Another Hottentot, who had driven our waggon from Bethelsdorp, on being asked how salvation was to be obtained, replied, that if he were constantly at the feet of Jesus he should certainly be saved: and then gave us an account of his conversion and religious experience, with a degree of simplicity and sober earnestness extremely interesting and affecting; during which he also evinced so clear an understanding and such correct views of the grand doctrines of Christianity, as might have put many self-righteous professors to the blush. "Next to this man sat another, rather aged, by trade a mason, who we found was the deacon of the church. In reply to a question, as to what benefit he thought they had derived from the knowledge of Christianity, he said, that, for his part, he knew he had formerly lived without God and without hope; and, had he died in that state, he must have been lost for ever: but that now, he had a sure and certain hope, which would comfort him in death h'; that others also had the same, and both he and they had great reason to thank God for having spared them and given them this knowledge. "After some further conversation the missionary gave out a hymn, which the whole party sung, with a degree of feeling and solemnity of devotion, which shewed that with them it was not a service of cold formality or casual amusement, but a duty in which their hearts were engaged. To a short exhortation which followed, they listened, with an attention and delight, as to a subject in which their affections were interested. The whole then knelt down on the ground; and joined, many of them audibly, in a fervent prayer to the Father of all mercies; after which the service was concluded with another hymn, sung with equal warmth of feeling andfervour of devotion as before. We continued conversing with them until near midnight. "These facts, I trust, will speak for themselves; and I shall only add what further came to our knowledge on the same occasion, that, in two of the principal families in that part of the country, in which religion, for a time, had been much opposed by the masters, a number of the slaves and Hottentots were in the habit of meeting together for Divine worship every evening; having been induced to do so, in one case by an old man, and in another by an old woman, who owed their original conversion and subsequent improvement mainly to the missionary institutions. "Thus, then, we see that the seed already sown has brought forth an abundant increase; and, although the journals of the missionaries, at these and the other institutions, may not be swelled with long lists of nominal converts, or their labours such as to attract the applause of men, they are proceeding not the less steadily in their arduous course. Nor are the effects of their labours |